Gwyneth Paltrow Burned by New York Times Again Over Cookbook Ghostwriter Controversy

Rep for paper tells E! News, "The article does not merit correction"

By Natalie Finn Mar 20, 2012 12:15 AMTags
Gwyneth PaltrowSonia Moskowitz/Getty Images

The New York Times isn't planning to sugarcoat the truth for Gwyneth Paltrow.

The paper insists it didn't goof when it comes to the GOOPster, telling E! News that it stands behind an article in last week's Dining section that names Paltrow as one of many cookbook authors who have collaborated with a ghostwriter.

"The article does not merit correction," a rep for the Times says, noting that Paltrow's beef is not rare among chefs.

"Twitter and the food blogosphere quickly lighted up, and we heard from a number of people named in the article, including Jamie Oliver, Rachael Ray, Gwyneth Paltrow and Mario Batali," writes Julia Moskin in a follow-up piece referred to us by the Times. "All four have acknowledged, in print, working with collaborators on their books—but all objected to what they saw as the implication that they were not the authors of their own work."

Paltrow, for one, had tweeted, "Love @nytimes dining section but this weeks facts need checking. No ghost writer on my cookbook, I wrote every word myself."

Moskin continues: "While the article dealt with a wide range of assistance, it became clear that the notion of 'ghostwriting' carried a strong stigma in the food world. It suggested that the food itself—the ingredients, the flavors, the techniques— as invented by someone else. This does sometimes happen (call it 'ghost-cooking'), and the chefs who engage in it are the objects of a special kind of scorn."

Moskin contends that she was not accusing Paltrow, et al., of ghost-cooking.

"Ghost-cooking is rarer than the routine work of wrestling hot, messy, complicated recipes onto the page in comprehensible English...That is cookbook ghostwriting, as I and many others have experienced it," she writes. "The food itself, and the story that surrounds it, usually comes from the chef in varying stages of page-readiness."

Interestingly, Moskin also notes that Ray, Batali and a rep for Oliver, in objecting to their inclusion in the original story, told the paper that certain other chefs should have been included.

Looks like this stew is getting a little too spicy!